Contractors Who Go The 'Extra Mile'

All-State Fire Protection, Inc. has committed to help make a difference in Indian Country by agreeing to the terms of a Tribal Training Labor Agreement developed by NACTM, Inc. Through the TTLA all parties mutually agree that the contractor will hire trainees on construction projects on and off the reservation as well as provide Apprenticeship into the applicable construction trades.

Mr. Gibler, President of All-State Fire Protection, was first introduced to Mr. Kevin Buckles during an orientation for a training program that was going to be put on at the Wind River Reservation. At the time Kevin worked for the Council for Tribal Employment Rights promoting the Native Construction Careers Initiative that provides training to Tribes that are interested in providing their members a 300 hour construction training course with an emphasis in carpentry.

"When I met Kevin and Ed Hensley at the Wind River orientation Kevin was 'getting by' utilizing his own vehicle to travel in promoting this initiative and that motivated me to help any way I can," said Gibler. Mr. Gibler donated a 20 foot utility trailer to the Council for Tribal Employment Rights for the NCCI program. "It's the right thing to do," he said.

"I had an old 1980 GMC Suburban at the time and I broke down the night before trying to get here," Kevin joked about that ill-fated trip. "When Ray said he was donating the NCCI program a travel trailer I told my boss that he was going to have to get me a vehicle to use because ol' Betsy was tired," said Kevin jokingly.

Since then Mr. Buckles has gone private and morphed his dreams into forming his own company, Native American Construction Training Management, Inc (NACTM, Inc). "CTER and I had different ideas on where NCCI needed to go next but it was a mutual parting of ways...and we just outgrew each other," said Mr. Buckles. He has been working with these types of initiatives since 2005.

“I had a great experience working with an Indian-owned contractor out of Kennewick, Washington when I was TERO Director for the Fort Peck Tribes,” said Kevin Buckles. “First I had to get my Tribe to agree to let me put a Project Labor Agreement on a phase of our Water Treatment Plant and it was not an easy sell."

Kevin was initially turned down on his initiative with the Fort Peck Tribes but a tribal councilman approached him afterwards to ask him to get public comment then introduce it back to the council in two weeks. His efforts paid off when the Tribes' approved it two weeks later.

When the Project Labor Agreement (PLA) was approved by the Fort Peck Tribes Kevin then reached out to Apollo, Inc., a Native-American Owned Firm out of Kennewick, Washington to ask them to bid on Fort Peck’s MR & I Water Treatment Plant.

“I did my research on Apollo, Inc., asked them to bid on our Water Treatment Plant, and the Tribes awarded them the contract.”

One of the terms of the contract was that Apollo, Inc. had to agree to the terms of their Project Labor Agreement, which resulted in ninety-percent hire for Fort Peck tribal members. One of the conditions the Fort Peck Tribes wanted to see was that their tribal members weren't required to join the union but a majority of the tribal members that worked on the project opted to join the union regardless. This resulted in union wages being earned and healthcare benefits being provided to their families, which takes a big burden off of the Indian Health Service.

“You just need those contractors’s who are willing to go the extra mile like All-State Fire Protection, Inc. has and Apollo, Inc has.,” said Kevin Buckles. Apollo, Inc. has since partnered with the Fort Peck Tribes on other construction projects on the Fort Peck Indian Reservation in Montana.

“Indian Country fights very hard to maintain their sovereign rights’ and we need contractors who are going to respect that,” Mr. Buckles concluded.